Conveyor system for a fish cleaning plant

ABSTRACT

A conveyor system suitable for holding food products, such as fish, comprising a feed conveyor, having a discharge end, a receiving conveyor having a receiving end, a double conveyor having a collecting end adjacent said discharge end and an output end adjacent the receiving end. The double conveyor has two cooperating conveyor belts arranged vertically one above the other so as to be capable of gripping food products on the feed conveyor and being able to transport the food products to the receiving conveyor, the collecting end of the double conveyor is laterally displaceable in response to information signals obtained from a preceding processing station.

The invention concerns a conveyor system for handling food products,such as fish, and of the type comprising two cooperating, horizontallyoriented, vertically displaced conveyor belts.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The use of conveyor belts in connection with handling and processing offood products is widely known and may involve feed faces whoselongitudinal directions may be oriented horizontally or in variousinclinations transversely and longitudinally thereof.

For example, the Danish application 0447/76 concerns an apparatus fortreating fish and comprises a plurality of conveyor belts havingsubstantially horizontally oriented conveying surfaces. This systemadvances and positions fish along a horizontal path while the fish aresubjected to i.a. cleaning. Thus, the supporting face does not changeits nature during the processing of the fish.

Known is also a fish feeding system where the fish are gripped andretained by holding means which engage the gill openings of the fish andthereby retain and position the fish in a subsequent cleaning operation.

The above-mentioned plants have preferably been used in connection withcleaning fish of guts, etc., but conveyor belts are also known whichsupport fish horizontally for feeding at a station where decided boningof fish takes place.

In the past, fish have thus been disposed on a horizontal supportingface for providing the said operations, but the invention is based onthe finding that significant operational advantages will be obtained ifthe fish can be held in a vertical position via the tail, which makescomplete cleaning of the fish possible, where not only guts, but alsobones and other matter can advantageously be removed, especially becauseof an increasing automatization in this field too.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the invention is to provide a conveyor system of thestated type which permits said retention and feeding of the fish so thatthe fish fillet is free of support substantially along its entiresurface so that unimpeded treatment and advantageous offal collectionare obtained.

This object is obtained by providing a conveyor system which has adouble conveyor with two cooperating conveyor belts arranged verticallyone above the other so as to be capable of gripping food products on afeed conveyor and being able to transport the food products to areceiving conveyor. When a conveyor system is constructed in thismanner, the result will be a system which, because the conveyor belts ofthe double conveyor are oriented vertically above each other andhorizontally, can catch, squeeze and retain the fish fillets in theirtail portion in a very simple manner, so that they hang downwardlyduring transport and treatment in this station. Of course, this verticaltreatment position entails that bones and other impurities can moreeasily be separated from the fish meat.

For this mode of treatment to be feasible with fish of various types,sizes and qualities, the double conveyor is arranged so that it can belaterally displaced at its collection end in a horizontal plane forpositioning along the end face of a preceding conveyor. The angularposition of the conveyor with respect to a preceding conveyor feed beltcan currently be adjusted in this manner on the basis of information onthe nature of the individual fillets, said information being recordedfrom a preceding station. When, the preceding detection station isarranged to give information to an ejector device provided in connectionwith the conveyor, control measurements from a station may signalrejection and thus ejection of a fish fillet when this does not complywith specified control data. The structure of the double conveyor makesit possible that ejection of fillets can advantageously be effected bylocally reducing the squeezing so that the fillet just drops down intothe collection unit for ejected fillets.

The conveyor system is moreover advantageously provided in combinationwith a chute or guide rail which is disposed in the immediate vicinityof the collection area of the two cooperating belts, and which extendsobliquely downwardly in a soft curve with respect to the travellingdirection of the conveyor. This chute entails that the transition of thefish fillets from horizontally supported position to vertical hanging inthe tail is made as gentle as possible, so that the risk of breaksadjacent the squeezed tail portion is minimized to the greatest extentpossible.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be explained more fully below with reference to thedrawing, in which

FIG. 1 is a top view of the conveyor system of the invention, the doubleconveyor being disposed between substantially horizontally oriented feedand receive belts,

FIG. 2 is a lateral view of the conveyor system illustrated in FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 shows the ejector device provided in connection with a conveyorhorizontally opposite to it, and

FIG. 4 is a top view of the ejector device illustrated in FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIGS. 1 and 2 show the conveyor system 1 of the invention, the doubleconveyor 2 being present between a feed belt 4 and a receive belt 5. Italso appears how the double conveyour 2 can be laterally displaced in ahorizontal plane at its one end to a predetermined angular position,indicated at A and B in the working area.

The above-mentioned lateral displacement of the double conveyor is afeature provided on the basis of the recognition that not all fish havethe same size, shape, meat distribution, mass as well as nature in otherrespects, so that a fish fillet 3 will tend to be broken at the tailportion immediately adjacent the squeezing area on the double conveyor.This system is so arranged that the lateral displacement is controlledon the basis of a preceding treatment station, which produces data onthe state of the fish, including the above-mentioned parameters of itsnature, e.g. by means of a special illumination and calculationtechnique, so that the horizontal angular position of the conveyor 2 ispositioned in careful agreement with the feeding of each fish fillet.

It is moreover shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 how the said structure of thedouble conveyor 2 can be used in connection with a sort of chute orguide rail 6, which is disposed in the immediate vicinity of the fishfillet collection area of the conveyor 2, where the chute extendsobliquely downwardly in a soft curve with respect to the travellingdirection of the conveyor.

This chute serves the purpose of ensuring that the transition of thefish from horizontally supported position to vertical position hangingin the tail is made as gentle as possible, so that the risk of breaks atthe squeezed tail portion is avoided to the greatest extent possible.The provision of this chute is therefore to be seen as an additionalsecurity measure, it being appreciated that the laterally displaceabledouble conveyor will be controlled to engage the tail portion of thefish fillet at a predetermined point, which means that for an optimumtreatment area for the fish fillet there is a carefully adaptedproportion between the point of attack of the double conveyor at thetail portion and the mass of the fish fillet.

It will likewise be appreciated that between the horizontal conveyors 4and 5 the outlined conveyor system 1 is provided with water spraynozzles (not shown) which are known per se and adapted to remove bonesand other impurities. This system entails that each fillet between theends of the conveyor 2 passes the row of nozzles for performance of saidfillet cleaning.

FIGS. 3 and 4 show a section of the double conveyor where an ejectordevice 13 according to the invention is provided. The cooperatingfeeding faces 7 and 8 of the double conveyor 2 are shown to be providedresiliently with a preset, adjustable pressure so that they are adaptedto catch and squeeze a fish fillet 3, without its meat texture beingdestroyed. In FIG. 3, a fish fillet in a vertically hanging, squeezedposition is being fed to a water spraying station disposed immediatelyadjacent the squeezing area 12 of the conveyor 2, where, under normalcircumstances, a fish fillet will thus be boned and freed of variousundesirable impurities.

If, on the other hand, the previously mentioned, preceding measuring andcontrol station has rejected the fish fillet in question because of anunacceptable meat texture or for other reasons, and the fish fillet hasnot been processed completely, the ejector station 13 will instead havebeen signalled to reject the fish fillet. In case of rejection, acylinder device 11 will be activated so that a wedge means 9 will beinserted between the belt faces 7 and 8 of the double conveyor 2, thebelts forming a slot 15 so that the fillet is no longer squeezed.Simultaneously with the insertion of the wedge means between the twosaid belt faces a so-called ejector strap 10 connected with a cylinderdevice ejects the fillet from the conveyor, and then the cylinder deviceand the wedge means are withdrawn and the belt is closed. The station 13will then be ready again to receive information on processing of thenext fish fillet.

By means of this structure of a conveyor system adapted to cooperatewith the other stations of a fish cleaning plant it is thereforepossible to sort out deviating fish qualities automatically, simply andrationally via information from preceding stations.

I claim:
 1. A conveyor system suitable for handling food products, suchas fish, comprising:a feed conveyor means for transporting said foodproducts, said feed conveyor means having a discharge end; a receivingconveyor means for transporting said food products, said receivingconveyor means having a receiving end; a double conveyor having acollecting end adjacent said discharge end and an output end adjacentsaid receiving end, said double conveyor having two cooperating conveyorbelts arranged vertically one above the other so as to be capable ofgripping food products on said feed conveyor means and being able totransport said food products to said receiving conveyor means; andconveyor displacement means to laterally displace the collecting end ofsaid double conveyor in response to information signals, regarding thefood products, obtained from a preceding processing station.
 2. Aconveyor system according to claim 1, further comprising an ejectordevice which is arranged adjacent to and along the area between theconveyor belts, the operation of said ejector device being controlled byinformation signals, regarding the food products, obtained from thepreceding processing station.
 3. A conveyor system according to claim 2,further comprising a chute which is arranged directly below thecollecting end of the two cooperating conveyor belts, and which extendsobliquely downwardly in a soft curve with respect to the travellingdirection of the conveyor.